Psychology: Stress Writing
Stress is a regular feeling created when humans react to particular events that confront in life. It is the body’s mechanism of rising to a challenge and preparing to meet a tough situation with much focus, strength and heightened alertness.
Primary appraisal on one hand refers to the case where an individual evaluates two distinct aspects of a given situation, which are the motivational relevance and the motivational congruence. In the aspect of motivational relevance evaluation, an individual attempts to ascertain the relevance of the situation to the individual needs. In evaluating the motivational congruence, the individual evaluates the consistency or inconsistency of the situations to the needs. On the other hand, Secondary appraisal on the other hand refers to evaluation of one’s resources and options for adaptation and coping. A second aspect of secondary appraisal is the coping potential evaluation which is either problem or emotion focused. This deals with the emotions likely to be experienced when approaching a given situation.
What are the three stages of the General adaptation system?
This is the body’s reaction towards stress produced by agents having general effects towards large portions of the body and involves three stages of adaptation to include: The Alarm reaction, the stage of Resistance and the stage of Exhaustion.
The Alarm Reaction stage (AR)
This is the first stage of general adaptation that is the immediate reaction to a stressor. During the early phase of stress, individuals develop a fight or flight response preparing the body for any physical action. This can however decrease the efficiency of the immune system thereby exposing the individual to illness.
The Stage of Resistance
This is the actual stage of adaptation. Stress continues at this phase as the body gets adapted to the stressors it is exposed to. Several changes occur in order to minimize the stressor effect. An individual stressed by starvation may develop reduced desire to for physical activity in order to save energy.
Stage of exhaustion
Up to this stage, stress has continued for some time and the body’s resistance to stress may have reduced or collapsed. This is common in patients experiencing long term stress and may make them susceptible to heart attacks or eventually high blood pressure.
What is the relationship between type A personalities and anger?
A type A personality can be associated to organized, highly ambitious, conscious, sensitive to others and are obsessed with time management issues. These individuals are always high achieving, push themselves with deadlines while hating delays. Those with such a personality have an inner irritation that is always triggered by even minor accidents. Anger shares with type A personality in that, anger is described as strong feeling of displeasure, annoyance and hostility. Both anger and type A personality are normal responses to a threat and may also be applied in a constructive and purposeful manner.
In what ways does exercise affect your health?
Regular physical activity is significant in the human development for many reasons. The mood and feeling about oneself is improved, this reduces to a greater extent the cases of depression and anxiety equipping one with better stress management strategies.
Individuals with high blood pressure benefit majorly from regular exercises as the blood pressure is lowered to healthy levels. This is through reducing the fatness of an individual’s body; fatness is always associated with high blood pressure.
Exercises are significant in preventing heart diseases and stroke. Regular physical activity can help in the prevention of heart diseases and stroke through strengthening of the heart muscles, maintaining good levels of cholesterol, improving blood circulation and increasing the heart working capacity.
A regular exercise is important in reducing back pains, this happens because the muscle strength and endurance are increased. Flexibility of the muscles is also increased.
Conclusion
Stress is the body’s way of responding to both beneficial and harmful situations. General adaptation describes the body’s short term and long term reaction towards stress; it is produced by agents which have a general effect towards large portions of the body. There are three stages of adaptation to include: The Alarm reaction, the stage of Resistance and the stage of Exhaustion. Exercise should be an integral part of human life to ensure healthiness.
